I witnessed plenty of ill-considered death and mayhem during 20 years on
the NYPD. In one case, we responded to a "body in a courtyard" call. We
found a 19-year-old man who had perished by falling from a great height,
although the roof access was securely locked and there were no open windows
overlooking the courtyard. Clearly, we could rule out suicide, but what
had happened? Eventually we located an informative eyewitness.

The man's younger brother.

He told us that the two of them had intended to burglarize an apartment,
and his brother had climbed a cable TV wire to a fifth-floor window. While
struggling to force the window, he had lost his grip on the TV cable and
fallen to his death. The surviving brother panicked and ran.

When I asked why they had selected that particular apartment, the brother
looked at me incredulously, and replied, "They obviously got a TV if they
got a cable going in the window." Obviously!